Posted - 01/16/2014 : 14:58:25 Ryan.....either i didn't notice it, or it didn't register before, but i just saw your mention of the Hudler snub. WTF??? The guy's having a career year in Calgary and they don't take him???

When the team was named, he was the 3rd highest scoring Czech in the NHL, and today he's 1st. Yes, just 1 pt ahead of Jagr and 3 ahead of Krejci (and 5 ahead of the 4th highest, Vrbata, who was also snubbed) but still, it seems very odd???

ryan93

Posted - 01/16/2014 : 09:24:00

quote:Originally posted by slozo

It's a decent team, but past its prime - the best players in their prime years here are the Michalek brothers, Voracek and Plekanec . . . good players, but not A grade stars. Matched up against the top 5 teams of Canada, Russia, the US, Sweden and Finland, they are weak in goal and on D.

Still, much like Finland seem to do, when they play as a national team, they seem to mesh really well, in terms of style. And old man Jagr is playing way better than his age, and if Pavelec can bring it for a string of games . . . they can be a solid upset team.

But I see them being knocked out early, myself.

"Take off, eh?" - Bob and Doug

I'd add David Krejci to that "in their prime" core group.

slozo

Posted - 01/16/2014 : 06:31:19 It's a decent team, but past its prime - the best players in their prime years here are the Michalek brothers, Voracek and Plekanec . . . good players, but not A grade stars. Matched up against the top 5 teams of Canada, Russia, the US, Sweden and Finland, they are weak in goal and on D.

Still, much like Finland seem to do, when they play as a national team, they seem to mesh really well, in terms of style. And old man Jagr is playing way better than his age, and if Pavelec can bring it for a string of games . . . they can be a solid upset team.

But I see them being knocked out early, myself.

"Take off, eh?" - Bob and Doug

Alex116

Posted - 01/15/2014 : 23:38:17 Ryan.....was just kidding really as Nedved did in fact have some pretty good years, but as a Canuck fans, it's hard to look back and realize we picked him over Jagr.

It goes back to his Olympic appearance with Team Canada in '94. Petr had some very good years with the Rangers too, loved the Hlavac-Nedved-Dvorak "Czech mates" line in the early 2000's!

Guest4178

Posted - 01/06/2014 : 14:25:13 And I would add that the Finnish team probably looks a bit better than the Czech team on paper too. (The Finns won bronze at the last Olympic games, and most of their players will be returning.)

But as everyone knows, it's a single-game knock-out event (no best of 3 or best of 7), so any of the top 5 or 6 teams could win gold.

But if I'm ranking the teams, I would put the Czech team behind five teams, maybe 6th, and just ahead of the Slovakian team.

Guest4178

Posted - 01/06/2014 : 14:15:03 A bit surprised to see that Nedved is still playing, but when checking out his stats, he seems to be contributing well in the Czech league.

This Czech teams seems a bit old. Nedved and Jagr are both 42, Elias and Zidlicky are 37, Rozsival is 35, and there are about another half dozen players 30 or over.

There are a couple of good players not selected for the team: Jiri Hudler and Radim Vrbata, both who are having good seasons.

Including Nedved, not all players selected are NHLers. I count 16 out of 25 on the list who play in the NHL.

On paper, this team does not appear to match up to the Canadian and American teams. And I would add the Russian and Swedish teams too. But as they say, the game is played on the ice, not on paper! :)

Posted - 01/06/2014 : 11:53:06 I was surprised to see Petr Nedved's name on the list. I didn't realize he was still playing. I thought he had retired after his failed NHL comeback a couple years ago. Nedved was always my favorite player, hence the 93 after my name.